


The Reclamation of Bucky Barnes

by newtypeshadow



Series: SuperSuperSorcererHusbands Fics [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Wizards, BAMF Tony Stark, Canon-Typical Violence, Curse Breaking, Curses, Getting Together, Hydra (Marvel), Kidnapping, M/M, Mentioned Brock Rumlow, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Rescue, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:55:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtypeshadow/pseuds/newtypeshadow
Summary: Bucky knows Hydra will to go through anyone and anything to reclaim him: their pet assassin, their Winter Soldier, their "asset".What he doesn't know is that Hydra's not the only group willing to go so far to get him back.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: SuperSuperSorcererHusbands Fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858762
Comments: 49
Kudos: 392
Collections: MHEA Harlequin Hoopla Prompt Challenge 2020





	The Reclamation of Bucky Barnes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Marvel Harlequin Hoopla Challenge](https://heamarvel.tumblr.com/harlequin) and inspired by the following four Suspense line prompts: 13. Secret identity; 19. Witness Protection; 22. On the run; and 24. Wizards. There are a few others, but those are the main ones.
> 
> Betaed by the delightful [betheflame](/users/betheflame/). Any mistakes you find are here because I'm a stubborn fool.

Bucky knew Hydra would catch him eventually, but nothing could've prepared him for how gutted he'd feel if they hurt Steve when they did. Steve had turned his life upside down for Bucky, and all he got in return was a life on the run, with Bucky waking him screaming at four A.M., and now… God. _Fuck_. Bucky wants to believe he'll never forget watching Steve's shirt turn red so quickly, like it'd been dunked in crimson dye, or the pained, confused little furrow in Steve's brow, and the way Steve never stopped yelling at STRIKE or reaching for Bucky until Rumlow viciously knocked him out; the way his own body went sluggish and hazy as the tranquilizers kicked in, Steve bleeding out on their duplex carpet the last thing he saw before everything pitched sideways and went dark; but he can't. He knows what's in store for him now that he's been recaptured.

The armored car he awoke in who knows how long after he passed out shudders over what's probably a pothole. Bucky's magically manacled wrists jerk him from his precarious slouch in the middle of the sickening death-magic cage, the bars of which he's trying to touch as little as possible. Just their proximity saps his magically-imbued strength and replaces it with sticky despair and the niggling compulsion to _comply_. He almost rams face first into the disgusting bars before he rights himself. Some faceless grunt on STRIKE laughs at his struggle to remain upright. If this were a normal cage and normal manacles, Bucky'd be out of these restraints and burying his metal fist in the asshole's face before punching through the back door and launching himself onto the street in the most important race in his life: the one to save Steve.

Because he can't call Tony or 9-1-1; his cell phone isn't in his pocket anymore. He'd have to pray Steve's stubborn ass held out long enough for him to bring help.

Stevie. _God_. His constitution's always been so delicate, for all he can talk like a punch in the mouth when he's riled up. Always been smaller and physically weaker than Bucky—even before Hydra magically enhanced Bucky and made him a fucking thrall. But even so, Steve's also always been first to jump in and fight for what's right, despite knowing he's going to get hurt and probably lose in the end. Just like he fought STRIKE for Bucky in their home of the past four months. Bucky hopes Tony gets home soon enough to get Steve to a hospital; he's their landlord, and inhabits the other side of their duplex out in the boonies, far away from prying eyes. It'd be impossible to miss the damage STRIKE did breaking in.

Poor Tony. Never asked them a question he wasn't okay not knowing the answer to. Let them pay in cash and rent under a gentleman's agreement, rather than with a paper contract the government could get their hands on.

The ability to use magic is rare—less than one percent of the population can do it—but when Tony found out Steve had pneumonia, he tracked down and bought a healing potion from a mage with the kind of power that only comes once a generation _at most_. Steve's condition had gotten so bad Bucky bundled him up to take to the ER even though he complained, even though doing it would definitively put Bucky back on Hydra's radar. Tony ran in front of their car and wouldn't move until Steve agreed to drink the thing and give it a few minutes to work.

The potion was so powerful the effects were almost instantaneous. Steve went from wretched and miserable to breathing deeply, and then laughing, smiling wider than he had in a long time. That potion made Steve healthier than he's probably ever been all twenty-six years of his life. Stuff that good costs millions; all Tony would accept in exchange was Bucky coming over a few nights a week and cooking him enough food to last until the _next_ time Bucky took over his surprisingly upscale kitchen and cooked up a storm for him.

Tony is so sweet underneath all the glib showmanship. Bucky could tell he was working up to asking them out; Steve was, as always, oblivious to others' attraction to him. In a perfect world, Bucky knew he and Steve would've eagerly said yes. But in this world, Hydra wanted their pet assassin back and would go through anyone to re-acquire their "asset". So to protect Tony, they'd've had to say no, and soon they'd've had to move again so they wouldn't bring Hydra down on Tony's doorstep.

Like they did.

He's just glad Tony wasn't home.

Bucky's stomach churns in a nauseating mixture of guilt, sorrow, and fear. He wants to think even if the doctors and mages make him forget everything again, forget _Steve_ again, some part of him will rest easier in his enthralled captivity knowing Steve's love for Bucky got him Tony instead of killed.

But Bucky's seen and killed enough people as a Hydra thrall to know Steve is already dead. He's remembered enough about his time as a thrall to know he won't remember Steve, or Tony, or even himself, at all.

Right now, maybe forgetting would be a mercy.

Bucky hugs his knees to his chest and lets the scents of home and Steve, all but woven into the fabric of his jeans and t-shirt, soothe him.

About seven minutes later, he hears the wrathful cry of… Of… He doesn't know what animal could possibly make that sound, only that it's huge and melodic and the people up front in the paddywagon, where the windows are, are cursing up a blue streak and gunning the engine.

One second Bucky can feel the sway of tires on the road.

The next, his stomach swoops as the truck rises high and fast. The car jerks violently, and metal screeches like chunks of it have been torn off. Bucky hears gunfire, but no one back here can see what's going on because of the partition and lack of windows. Whatever it is they see up front, they either haven't told anyone back here on comms, or their comms aren't working.

Bucky quickly realizes it's the latter. They're literally flying blind right now.

He hopes whatever it is rips these assholes to pieces. He'll happily die today if it means they're wiped off the face of the earth. He believes in an afterlife. If he dies today, he'll just be going home to Steve.

Some STRIKE goon unlatches and opens one of the paddywagon doors, while another stands beside him, gun at the ready. The door swings open. In the distance is gray sky, a sprawling highway, and hints of spring greenery. There's no mage or animal in sight.

The gunman sticks his head out, presumably because he can't see what's attacking them either—and shrieks when a big hand grabs his foot and drags him out of the truck. He scrabbles to get away, and only succeeds in knocking himself into the doors and floorboards on his way down.

Seconds later, there's a thud with an undertone of pavement-cracking. The screaming stops.

The truck drops. Plummets at least a story. But whatever's holding it doesn't smash it into the ground. They land with nary a bump.

The paddywagon floor is level with the road now. The tires must be what got ripped off earlier.

The truck rocks violently—something else torn off—and there's a shout and more gunfire up front, followed by two bone-cracking thuds and silence. A familiar voice calls, "Bucky?"

_Steve!_

Elation that Steve is alive is quickly smothered by fear Bucky will lose him again. "Stevie, stay back," he yells. "They got three more back here!" For the first time since he woke up in this cage, Bucky is terrified. Nothing has ever scared him more than Steve getting hurt.

He's distracted by a red metal hand that clamps down on the truck door that's still latched. The hand wrenches the door off its hinges and tosses it carelessly onto the empty highway.

STRIKE is shooting before it lands. Shooting at a metal man straight out of a superhero comic. A man in a beautiful, full-bodied suit of gleaming red and gold armor. The bullets ping harmlessly against it just long enough for it to raise both hands and shoot three beams of light the likes of which Bucky has never seen. The remaining goons drop dead on impact.

Steve skids into view then. He's wearing Bucky's clothes—because his waif-like boyfriend is now big and broad-shouldered and built like a tank. He looks like a goddamned statue of an Olympian god.

Bucky swallows. "Stevie?"

It's clearly Steve: same face and voice and fearful yet protective expression he always gets when he thinks Hydra's gotten too close. Bucky gets a lump in his throat when he sees that his boyfriend's really okay. Sees he's alive and looks healthy and uninjured. Sees him look so relieved to see Bucky's still alive too.

"Buck," Steve gasps, and lurches into the cabin carpeted with cooling corpses.

"Steve, _stop!_ " orders the armor in Tony's frantic voice, just as Bucky yells, "Don't touch the bars!"

Mercifully, Steve stops, his hands scant inches from the bars of the cage.

Bucky tries to slow his racing heart. " _Jesus_ , punk! You tryin'a give me a heart attack?"

Steve shuffles back and then grins shyly at the metal man. "Tony'd save you," he says. "Like he saved me."

The helmet smoothly retracts, revealing Tony's assessing gaze as it roves over Bucky and the cage and manacles. He offers Bucky a tight smile. "What's a nice guy like you doing in a cage like that?" he asks, flirting distractedly.

Bucky can tell Tony's focused on the cage.

"JARVIS, whaddaya think?" Tony asks.

The soft blue light glowing from a triangle in the armor's chest pulses with a musical trill.

"Yeah, me too," Tony agrees. He stands at the door of the cage and holds his hands close to the bars.

It's the strangest thing: Bucky can feel the evil, controlling magic shuddering away from the threat of Tony's touch.

"You're gonna owe me _so_ many meals after this," Tony says with a sly grin. The blue light in his chest gets brighter, the lights on his palms glow to match it, and Tony's eyes are swallowed by that same wash of glowing blue. He presses his palms to the cage bars, and though his body doesn't move, something about him seems to _push_.

The lights flare like Tony is the epicenter of a magical explosion. Bucky feels the blast slam through the cage, through the manacles, through _him_ —but he's almost positive the explosion had shape. He could swear he saw a majestic bird wreathed in blue flames erupt from Tony's chest. Bucky feels like it flew right through his soul. And while the cruel magic of the cage reacts like it's being painfully torn apart and burned to neutral atoms, when the magic washes through Bucky it feels warm, cleansing, like the comfort of fingers lovingly stroking through his hair, but all over his body, inside and out, down to the essence of what makes him Bucky Barnes. As the energy-sapping magic of the cage burns away, he can again feel Hydra's curse thrumming through his veins. The strength and longevity are still very much with him—but somehow, the curse is _changing_. The part that makes him susceptible to thrall, to carrying out horrendous orders unimpeded by conscience or feeling or his own free will, burns away with the cage. By the time the bright spots dancing in his vision disappear, the curse that so doggedly burdened him has changed completely. It feels like a blessing now.

Tony's blessing.

The kind of blessing so powerful it can only be given by the caliber of mage that appears, at most, once a generation.

Tony puts a finger to the cage lock, and Bucky watches with fascination as red metal from the armor flows into it. Almost immediately comes the _click_ of it unlocking. The metal flows back onto Tony's hand as he pulls open the door, then flows down into the manacles to do the same. As Tony stands and steps aside so Bucky can get out, he grins and winks at Bucky's awestruck expression. "C'mon, Cujo. We're burning daylight."

Steve immediately takes Tony's place, a frantic mother hen in giant human form, and half drags Bucky out into his arms. He tucks Bucky's head against his neck and holds him tight with the kind of strength magic has made Bucky capable of exerting, but that Steve's frail body never allowed him to use. Steve is murmuring love and relief into his hair. Bucky leans against him and lets himself be comforted.

He's safe. They're all safe. Steve is alive and squeezing him with the kind of implacable grip Bucky desperately needs right now.

Steve and Tony came for him, and they _won_.

When Bucky pulls back, he realizes Steve is slightly taller than him now. "Huh," he says, looking up into Steve's clear blue eyes. "You got big." He studies this mountain of a man who was his little punk boyfriend less than an hour ago, if the sunlight is anything to go by. "Did it hurt?"

Steve shrugs, and Bucky can see the sass coming even before Steve opens his big punk mouth. "I got shot. Everything hurt."

If it had been about anything else, Bucky woulda sassed him right back. But Bucky remembers Steve's blood-soaked chest, and can't help sliding his hand under Steve's shirt—a shirt that belongs to _him_ and is being worn by the man he'll belong to 'til the end of the line. Bucky touches the spot under the bullet hole he remembers with painful clarity. It's all smooth skin over hard muscle now. Bucky's eyes are far sharper than a normal human's, but even they can't find any scar tissue. It's as if the bullet wound never happened. "Huh," he says again. Unconsciously, he presses his hand to the remembered wound as if to hide even its memory. "This permanent?" he asks, giving Steve a once-over to accompany his question.

"So far," Steve says with a wry grin.

Bucky can't help it. He kisses the grin right off Steve's stupid, beautiful face. It gets intense impossibly fast, with Steve's fingers trembling on Bucky's jaw and the low groan he feeds into Bucky's mouth. It's when Bucky steps closer, pulls Steve closer, ratcheting the kiss from intense to fucking frantic, that something brushes his ankle and he's plunged back into the reality that they're standing in a half torn-apart paddywagon full of corpses with government IDs. "We should get outta here," he mutters to himself. His eyes seek out Tony, who's been strangely silent, and find him looking away—letting them have their joyful reunion together as if there's no room in it for him.

Which is bullshit.

Bucky knows he and Steve can say yes now, if Tony asks. He's pretty sure with a mage like Tony living next door with that superhero suit of his, they won't ever have to move again—won't have to keep running scared, or running at all. Not if Tony wants them to stay. "Tony," he calls, holding out a hand. "Literal light of my life, I need you to hug me, like, yesterday. And then we should probably get the hell out of here."

Tony's dark, pretty eyes are wide and surprised, but he grins and steps over the body between them to reach Bucky. Tony is Bucky's height in the armor, but it streams away from his arms and chest like liquid metal so that when Bucky wraps his arms around Tony, he's hugging flesh and bone, can feel Tony's warmth and sturdy muscle, feel the preciousness of his slim waist that fits so easily in Bucky's arms.

"Thanks, Tony," Bucky breathes into his neck. "Both of you," he adds when he reminds himself they all need to make themselves scarce before someone calls in the crime scene they've created. He presses a long kiss to Tony's cheek that makes him gasp quietly. Then, reluctantly, Bucky pulls away.

When his eyes flick to Steve for his wordless input, Steve's wondering expression as he gazes between them morphs into something pleased and excited. He gives Bucky an almost imperceptible nod, then leads them out into waning sunlight.

Where there's…no getaway car.

"How'd you get here?" Bucky asks. He recognizes this highway, too—they're a long ways from the house. Remembering his missing phone, he adds, "How did you find me?"

Tony grins and makes an odd, graceful motion with his fingers, and an actual _portal_ opens up like an electric gold-rimmed archway right in front of them. On the other side is Tony's living room. "I portaled to you," Tony says gleefully.

Bucky wonders how long Tony has wanted to tell them he's a mage. He certainly doesn't seem upset the secret's out.

"Well," Tony qualifies as they step through and the portal closes behind them like a curtain and vanishes, "as close as their protection spells let me get. Probably for the best though. Only one of us is bulletproof."

The armor peels off of him. Bucky can't see where it's disappeared to. All he knows for sure is that watching it withdraw from Tony's body makes a stir of want curl low in his belly. The metal striptease is so sexy, feels so intimate to behold, that he finds his ears flushing—and probably turning an unflattering shade of pink. Visibly, since his hair's still in an undoubtedly messy bun.

Tony certainly notices, if his cheeky grin is any indication.

Bucky glances at Steve and takes his hand. Steve can clearly see that Bucky's having lustful thoughts, because he jerks his chin at Tony and grins.

Bucky grins back. They both look at Tony.

Who's adorably confused and a touch nervous now. "What? What is it? What did that look mean? I'm not fluent in Buck Rogers."

Bucky grins wider. "Well, doll, it means unless you tell me we're barkin' up the wrong tree, we're gonna kiss you now, and ask you to go out with us, and then I'm gonna go cook dinner in your fabulous kitchen while you and Stevie explain to me what the hell happened after I got tranqed and carted off like an attack dog."

"Oh," Tony says, soft and surprisingly shy. "I, uh. I mean, as long as you don't _literally_ pee on me to mark your territory I definitely want you to keep barking." After a pause, some of his cocky confidence returns. "Hickies are fine though."

" _Tony_ ," Steve says in that scandalized-delight tone of his.

Bucky squeezes Steve's hand and lets go to press into Tony's space and get his hands on that sweet, tiny waist, and mouth on that impish grin. Tony presses right back, and then they're kissing. Tony's lips are chapped until Bucky slides his tongue over them, and then they're deliciously slick and move like that liquid metal armor flowed over Tony's body. When Tony cups his jaw and tilts him just so, Bucky follows direction eagerly—and is rewarded by Tony's tongue licking into his mouth, and the chopped-off moan fed into him when he sucks on it.

Bucky feels a disconcertingly big hand slide around his waist, and Tony jerks with a gasp. When Bucky's eyes flutter open it's Steve, _big_ Steve, with his lips on Tony's neck. Tony lets go of Bucky's jaw to pull Steve's mouth to his own—and Steve makes a helpless little whine that usually takes a lot more than one kiss to coax out of him. Tony's an amazing kisser, but so is Bucky. The most obvious difference between then and now is Steve's new body. As a test, Bucky gently caresses Steve's neck on his way to gripping the soft hair at its nape. Steve shudders and makes the sound again.

 _Yes_. Bucky's always had sensitive skin—even more so after he escaped Hydra with their spell still on him. Whatever magic Tony used to save Steve's life must've raised his sensitivity levels too. The minute Bucky gets Steve into bed tonight, he is going to _wreck him_.

He hopes Tony is there to help.

Judging from Tony's increasingly desperate kisses, and the way he's squirming against Steve and grinds into Bucky when he nestles himself against Tony's tantalizing ass, he will be.

"Oh, fuck," Tony gasps between quick, firm kisses. "We should— Can we— Bed?"

Bucky, sucking a proprietary bruise onto the soft skin at the join of Tony's neck and jaw, where everyone will see it, chuckles—and makes the delightful discovery that Tony's ears are a sensitive erogenous zone. "Dessert first?" he asks. Before anyone can answer, he pulls Steve into a kiss that traps Tony between them more securely than their arms already have.

Steve's hand quests over Bucky restlessly, ricocheting between gripping tight, pulling close, and caressing him in long, luxurious strokes. He can feel in Steve's desperate kiss, the frantic way he can't keep himself from nipping Bucky's lips, that the "oh fuck, I almost lost you today" is catching up to him.

It's contagious; Bucky picks it up. And Tony, always so in tune with their moods, falls into it too.

"Bed," Steve insists, all but shoving himself away with a gasp. Although they all begrudgingly let go, they don't stop touching, always keeping some point of contact with both their companions as Tony leads them up to his bedroom, shoves them onto his giant bed, and climbs on top of them.

It's late when they finally make it into the kitchen. Dinner is simpler fare than Bucky initially intended, but that's okay. There will be countless meals in the future that Bucky can cook Tony in thanks for what he did today. He owes Tony everything. More importantly, he wants to _give_ Tony everything—him and Steve both, for as long as Tony will have them. Making Tony laugh and moan and fixing every meal every day for the rest of his unnaturally long life—a lifespan they all now have in common, apparently—doesn't seem like nearly enough.

But it's what Tony wants. It's what they all want.

It's a good start to happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the fic! ^_^ If you did, please use kudos and comments to let me know—I _live_ for them! ♥


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